Getting into a rhythm

We are finally getting into a rhythm with Aaron, if not a regular schedule. He is eating every 2-3 hours, which means by the time I have fed him, changed his diaper (and frequently his clothes), I have about an hour and a half before it starts all over. He has about 2 periods of wakefulness during the day, generally late morning and evening, but other than that, he tends to sleep between feedinds/changings.

This is Aaron on his changing table in one of his classic poses he performs when he is sleepy during a changing. This is preferable to the screaming matches we get sometimes when he is hungry during a changing, rather than sleepy.

Sometime between 9-11pm, after feeding him, I will go to bed while Thom stays up with him. Aaron is usually sleeping, but he is a noisy sleeper, so by staying up, Thom allows me to turn off the baby monitor in the bedroom and get some good sleep. If Thom is too tired, he will come to bed with me, but will get up to check on Aaron if he is fussing before we think he should be ready to eat.

Once he is ready to eat again, around midnight-1am, Thom will get me up and I'll take the night shift. I can't get any continuous sleep anyway, so there is no point in also depriving Thom of a good night's rest. After I feed Aaron, I'll put him down in his crib and then climb into the guest bed in his room and get about an hour's sleep before his next feeding, usually interrupted by his grunts and groans in his sleep. We'll repeat this a few times until about 6am. After his dawn feeding, I will put him back in his crib, go back to our bedroom, turn the baby monitor on and crawl into bed. At this point, Thom is on duty if Aaron wakes up. I usually get close to two hours sleep at this point while Thom takes care of him before he needs to get ready for work.

During the day, if we are lucky, we'll have a visitor to break up the monotony. On Sunday, our friends Linda and Leo came over to watch Aaron so Thom and I could take a nap and get out in the yard together. We didn't go anywhere, but it was nice being able to do something together without having to listen for the baby. Aaron pretty much slept through their visit, but Linda and Leo took turns holding him in the glider.

Linda had a 3 week old Japanese Chin with her that had been rejected by its mother. She is involved in Japanese Chin rescue and frequently takes in foster dogs. The puppy slept for most of his visit here (with a stuffed pig), except when Linda woke him up for a feeding.

On Tuesday, Thom's first day back at work, Grandma came to visit Aaron and to keep me company during the day. I wasn't quite ready to be home alone with him all day, although I am getting more comfortable with him. Grandma held him in the glider for awhile and watched him while I took a nap and a shower. All in all, we did pretty well during Thom's first day back at work. By next week, I think I will be ready for a full day on my own. Fortunately Thom works from home on Fridays (and only half a day), so we are only going to be on our own 4 days a week, and most of those days I expect to have at least a visitor or two.